Illyria-Sample
Illyria “Illyria. Come on. Move quickly. This way. We can’t delay much longer.” She was wounded. Her right arm was bleeding terribly. She couldn’t find any cloth nearby to cover and suppress her wound. There was something. Something on the door, that was responsible for cutting open her skin. Might be glass, or some metal scraps with sharp edge. She didn’t get the time to see. Everything was happening so fast. She had left her staff at her bedchamber, and there was no way she could go back there to recover it. Her house was overcrowded with Drows. She couldn’t imagine what they had done to her parents and sister. If only they had a chance to escape with her. Minerva was the quickest to act, as usual, and she had the time to save only one person, and she chose Illyria. “I can’t. I am bleeding.” Without her staff, she was incapable of using restoration spells on her wound. Minerva took a pause, and looked back. Illyria was trying to cover her wound with her left palm, but that wasn’t helping much. The cut was too deep. “God! How did that happen?” “I am not so sure. There was something on the door. “ “Here. Take this.” She tore a piece of cloth from her gown and threw it to Illyria. “Now let’s move, before we fall into their sight.” Illyria wrapped her arm tightly, and continued following Minerva. They exited the building and ran towards the backside alley that would see them out of the High Forest. Illyria looked at her surroundings. There were Drows all over the place, slashing and cutting down the High elves on sight. It was a horrible sight to watch. The elves were running for lives. Some fought with swords, spears and bows, but the Drows were too many in number. Those who tried fighting instead of fleeing were the earliest to fall. Every elves, that Illyria had known since childhood, grown up with them, were being slain in front of her eyes. Some Drows had brought their mounts, the spiders. While the smaller spiders were not taking part in the fight and helping in carrying their riders, the giant ones were shooting poisons from mouths as well as engulfing the elves on sight. There were Driders too, hybrids of Drows and spiders. Their births did not occur due to the mating of the two breeds. It was said that the Driders were born as normal Drows but failed to complete the trials held in the name of their god, and as punishment were turned down to a Drider, a species incapable of mating, talking and using intellect. But as fighters they were very dangerous. Their upper bodies resembled that of a Drow without hair, lips, eyebrows and tongue. From waist down they had eight fangs, each capable of killing and poisoning prays. Ilyria saw an elven woman running helplessly, carrying a child in her arms, less than a year old. She couldn’t run very far, before she came face to face with a rider, who drove his sword through her heart. The child fell to the ground, and was engulfed by the spider in an instant. Illyria could not watch anymore. Tears dripped from her eyes. “Let’s not wait Illyria.” Minerva shouted. She had already moved few yards ahead of her. “Otherwise our fates will be similar.” Illyria quickly followed. Fortunately, the backside was much less crowded, and left unnoticed by Drows’ eyes. There were few elves though, running towards the way out, but none of the faces seemed familiar, except she might have noticed one or two of them during the ceremonies and gatherings. “Where is she?” Illyria shouted. “Who?” “Tanya. You told that you saw her running.” “Yes. I saw her taking down a couple of Drows with her bow and running towards the west. I couldn’t wait much longer to see how further she managed, since a couple of them were after me, and I had to hide behind the haystack to avoid their eyesight. By the time I came out, she was gone.” “West? But that is a dead end. How can she make it out alive by going towards west?” “As per my knowledge, she is an excellent climber. She might have used the trees for movement, or else, she could have taken the aerial route.” “How is that even possible? You mean, Griffin? Have they started rescuing us now?” “Well, it is a possibility, the other possibility being that she has been taken down. But we should keep our hopes high.” “I just wish she is safe now.” They were able to safely reach the Northern gate without any Drow following them. It seemed to her rather unlikely that Griffins would come rescuing them. She would sooner expect Avariels than Griffins, and Avariels duelled thousands miles away. But what happened to Tanya? I must find her. With all her family members slain, Illyria hoped to find the girl, who was her best companion and was as important to her as a family member. “We must look for her in the west.” Illyria said, “We can’t let her in danger, all by herself.” “Illyria, there is nothing we can do now.” Minerva said. “You have lost your stuff, and I am not a fighter. If she can’t protect herself, neither can we. We must think of getting out of here first.” “And go where? This is the only home I have known all my life.” “We should be able to figure out, as soon as we get to safety.” “There is no other village or society nearby. It is only forest everywhere. We will not be safe for another fifty miles. They can hunt us down anytime.” “Hold on, I think that is not what’s going to happen today.” “What?” Illyria looked at Minerva, and then looked at the direction she was staring. At least forty horsemen were approaching in their direction, with haste.